上海人最近在忙什么？

上海垃圾分类新规即将于2019年7月1日起实施，上海的朋友们每天都开始在进行着灵魂拷问：“xxx，你到底算什么垃圾”？

Here's why VR game for sorting trash is trending in China

Abacus

Shanghai residents are trying to figure out how to separate their trash correctly

Most VR games aim to immerse you in an environment you can’t (or don’t want to) experience in real life, like a scary, deserted hospital or a roller coaster. But this VR game is different: It wants you to experience classifying your trash. 

表示“（使）深陷于，沉浸在”，英文解释为“to become or make sb completely involved in sth”举个🌰：

She immersed herself in her work.

她埋头工作。

表示“过山车”，英文解释为“A roller coaster is a small railway at an amusement park that goes up and down steep slopes fast that people ride on for pleasure or excitement.”

Video of a VR game booth in Shanghai went viral on Weibo, featuring a game that puts you in front of four sortable garbage bins and asks you to throw the correct type of garbage into them.

It’s a game that probably wouldn’t have sparked any interest normally, but it comes at a time when Shanghai residents find themselves struggling to figure out the right bins for their trash, amid the city’s strict enforcement of new garbage sorting regulations. 

Play to get an immersive experience of garbage sorting.

(Picture: 四包包包包 on Weibo)

Shanghai’s new regulations requires people to separate their trash into four categories: Dry garbage, wet garbage (kitchen waste), recyclables and hazardous waste. Starting from July 1, individual offenders will be fined up to 200 yuan (US$29), and companies risk a fine of up to 500,000 yuan (US$72,378).

What many people find confusing is how to differentiate between dry and wet garbage. As demonstrated by one popular video shared by the state-run People's Daily, the (dry) shells of sunflower seeds count as wet garbage, while wet napkins belong to dry garbage. A hashtag named “Shanghai residents almost driven crazy by garbage classification” was at one point the second hottest search on Weibo yesterday.

· 湿垃圾即易腐垃圾，是指食材废料、剩菜剩饭、过期食品、瓜皮果核、花卉绿植、中药药渣等容易腐烂的生活废弃物。（瓜子壳 the (dry) shells of sunflower seeds）

· 干垃圾即其他垃圾，是指除了可回收物、有害垃圾、湿垃圾以外的其他生活废弃物。（湿纸巾 wet napkins）

The maker of the game is a Shanghai-based VR education company named VitrellaCore. It says in a WeChat article that the game is free for the public to experience at one booth in Shanghai, and that they will also release the game on Steam in the near future.

表示“临时货摊（或放映棚等），展台”，英文解释为“a small tent or temporary structure at a market, an exhibition or a fairground , where you can buy things, get information or watch sth”。

While the new regulation is making many people scratch their heads, it has also created new business opportunities online.

表示“苦苦琢磨；苦思冥想；绞尽脑汁”，英文解释为“to think hard in order to find an answer to sth”。

Prices of small sortable garbage bins for home use have been surging on ecommerce platforms, and users are providing garbage sorting services, naming themselves “garbage classification specialists”, on used-good trading platform Xianyu. 

(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba, who operates Xianyu.)

Shanghai is also deploying “smart garbage bins” in neighborhoods that can supposedly open by voice command, as shown in a Xinhua video. Some of the bins also need people to sign in with their house number, and are equipped with a “big data analysis system”. The system has records of which households have “actively participated” and which have not, so that neighborhood management can “publicize with house visits accordingly”, according to Chinese media reports. 

But it appears that some people think it’s not working very well.

“I just couldn’t open this smart garbage bin,” says one Weibo user. “Technology makes people grumpy.”

表示“脾气坏的，易怒的”，英文解释为“If you say that someone is grumpy, you mean that they are bad tempered and miserable.”举个🌰：

Some folks think I'm a grumpy old man.

一些人认为我是个脾气很坏的老头儿。

- 垃圾分类小游戏 -

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